"Independence Day" -- Just another Holiday?

I had intended to publish this earlier but suffered from a severe bout of laziness. So posting it now..We celebrated 69th year or our freedom on 15th August this year.

On the day itself I woke up to the speech from our PM. Though I wonder how many people do watch the speech, I myself accept that it was boring speech for an average listener like me. It sounded more like a speech from a party spokesperson rather than from a PM.

For the whole week the most prominent question amongst the people around me and Indians in general was "Are you leaving for your home?" with the Independence Day holiday making it 3 holidays in a row. Even during the Independence Day speech on the Rajpath I did'nt see any significant number of people other than those who just have to be there, the children and the dignitaries and them also being least interested in the speech.

The mood spilled over to the the tv channels as well with most prominant sign being national flag around their logo. And rest of the things were the usual ones including the movie channels telecasting the same old patriotic themed movies for a millionth time. I switched expecting the news channels to satiate my patriotic thirst but was sadly mistaken to find that there were more visible signs of the new movie being released on the same day with some borrowed snippets of official celebrations in various places.

Thus again left to meditate, the thought just shook me again.. Is Independence Day like any other national occasion is just a Holiday for us? Do we really do justice to the occasion? Or more importantly have we simply erased the importance of these days from our conscious memory? Is it just another day for us to put off from work. Have we just forgotten the hardships our country men went through to give us our present. I have watched Americans celebrate their Independence Day with such enthusiasm and fervor with most of the people coming out on the streets and expressing their national feelings. Sadly in our country I don't see any personal or private celebrations.

So is our Independence Day fast becoming just another day off from work or does it hold importance?